Starting a School Magazine

[JandLandG]

Hello there, teachers...I popped the following in another section and just wondered if you had any inside knowledge/experience you could share please...

Hello all, advice/thoughts/experience/opinions if poss pls.

Eldest is in yr 9 of good local comp and is keen to be a writer/producer/somethingorother, so I suggested he starts writing for the school magazine like you hear writers did when they were young.

Problem is, there isn't one.

I remember a termly publication when I was young on samizdat-style printouts but I suppose you could easily do an e-zone thing now via the school website.

I've chatted to him about the possibilities and he seems open to suggesting it so we're going to have a think...any thoughts?

Should be doable, right?

Ask pupils for contributions, they've mail em in, pupils selects and lays them out and e mails document back to school for approval and publication on website.

What does anyone think? Doable? Or am I missing things that will complicate it.

He could be part of an editorial group of pupils or something and it could develop over a few months into something quite good.

The only thing i can think of is if nasty older pupils e mailed in not-nice stuff anonymously and the kids were exposed to it. How to prevent that?

Anyway, I think this could potentially be a good idea and I'm sure it's already happening so any experience and knowledge of it would be great

I'll leave it with you but thanks in advance

I did it when I was a pupil and loved it!

We were a group of about ten who met up once a week after school. We all had our own sections which we were interested in / good at.

For example, there was this boy who was very good at drawing, so he created a cartoon for each issue.

One of the boys was 'geeky', you know back in the 90s when computers were only just emerging, and he always wrote on latest developments which was really good.

Someone else had the sports section and wrote about all the sport related events happening at school.

I was part of the school choir, so I always wrote something on our latest trips / achievements (we did lots!).

The rest, things that happened during a term, were split up on who wanted to do it or had time. All kinds of events from open evenings to things that happened in various classes such as art projects.

There were also interviews with teachers to get to know them etc. and just basically all events covered but also good interesting articles from pupils to pupils and some fun sections thrown in such as the cartoon or quizzes and crosswords.

We had sponsors who advertised in our magazine, just some local shops and businesses, which meant our copying cost was taken care of. Your DC wouldn't need to worry about this if it was all online, but it is nice to actually have a real magazine that you can hold in your hands.

Teachers sometimes suggested things, but we took care of it all - from deciding on articles for the next issue, dividing it, editing things, putting it together and then printing it.

It was pretty awesome, really have fond memories of this. It went on for many years. I still have every single issue.

And I must say, we had the coolest name for a school magazine: Eggspress! And our logo was an egg, ha ha. Oh back in the 90s

I set up and run one at primary level. It's on paper and I do most of the editing at present although I am hopeful of handing that over to Y6 as it develops. It started as a general all abilities and ages drop in and retains that aspect, although I am beginning to introduce a more formal element. I can imagine at secondary it could be totally pupil led and amazing!

Apologies...I'd missed these initially and forgot to post thanks.

Terrific input, really very much appreciated

Reviving this.....any other thoughts...or any links to any examples please?

Many thanks in advance